I have really had fun making my cards, teaching a few workshops sharing these with others over the last few months. I always enjoy working with watercolour paper and paint and creating my cards, then adding other simple touches to each individual card. I have made them into gift for friends for birthdays and Christmas, even a few sets I have made for raffles for a local charity I support. I also made a few art journal pages, after a visit to an art shop I discovered some mixed media paper, I bought a full sheet to try out with the intention of using this to make my cards with, I thought it worked out less expensive that the watercolour paper I usually buy. I was a little reluctant to cut into the sheet so I decided to cut into three pieces, that way I could save some big pieces if it did not work out. Each piece was 10" x 22", so I folded one piece over to make a smaller working area, this made a 10" x 11" working area. I had about six Inktence Blocks I bought ages ago so I decided to see how they would work on this new paper. I was really happy, although the mixed media paper did not like too much water I found that using the blocks dry on the page and that a wet baby wipe gave really good results, changing the colours and blending them nicely. The paper curled slightly, but I kept putting my hand over the top and pressing it down while it dried, which was only a couple of minutes. After letting this dry I again applied another layer of Inktence blocks over the first dry layer and again using another baby wipe, I was quite happy with the colour intensity as well as the colour depth it achieved. Rather than cut this up into card backgrounds I use stencils and a dragonfly stamp to embellish the space. This then became my front cover for an art journal, I folded the other two sheets the same, placed them inside each other and stitched them the same way I made my little bright books. There are twelve pages in all, working with Inktence blocks, stencils and some embellishments. I will be teaching this in May. I am now on my second art journal, the same size 10" x 11" also with 12 pages. I love the size of the page as it is easy to work with and twelve pages are not overwhelming to complete. The average price for the full sheet of mixed media paper is $8.50c - 30" x 22". I found a big ball of crochet cotton I found at a second hand shop and used this to sew together, For this size journal and twelve pages for just under $9 works out reasonable.
I have tried other mediums, paints on this paper and they all seem to work well, it does not like water too much so do not water the paint down, so watercolours are not a good idea. The paper is called; Beta Series - Art Paper - Multi-Media. Archival Quality, extra heavy weight paper. 180lb. Natural white - cold press. 22 x 30 in (55.9 x 76.2 cm) By Stillman and Birn. Happy new year to you all. I have been busy for the last few weeks preparing for February when I will be teaching a small class how I make my cards. For a few years now I have had a rest from teaching and although I missed sharing my folk art with students and friends I really needed time out from a busy schedule. Then mid year 2016 I was asked out to lunch with some friends/students, we enjoyed a lovely lunch together I really missed their company, of course we got talking about art and I was asked to teach them again as most had not done much painting since I retired from painting class. It was not really teaching as I am the one who is still learning. We have fun along with the serious bits, and the lunches are all home made and just yummy. Well we now have an almost weekly get together and share painting time, we are only a small group, mostly painting in the folk art style, they have now shown an interest in my cards so I will be starting in February with our first lesson of the year painting watercolour cards and various techniques. My cards will also be on sale at Artbylyn. One of my cards for the Boy's, Using watercolour paper with watercolours and inks and various other mediums to give depth. More a work of art, it is attached to a card that is 5" x 7" and can be displayed in a frame as an art work, the card is blank inside ready for you to write that letter you have been meaning to send, or your own saying. This is one of my favourites.
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April 2017
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